In recent years, various parameters, e.g. blood glucose levels, body temperature, pulse, blood pressure, and the like, have been measured in patients in healthcare settings for the purpose of managing the physical condition of the patients. Data obtained by such measurements is gathered for every patient, stored in a database, and used for diagnostic purposes by physicians. Management in database form is particularly important for blood glucose levels, which have to be measured several times a day for every single patient.
In addition, when such data management is performed, local physicians or medical personnel have to process data so as to associate data obtained by measurement with patient-identifying data, for example, process patient IDs, etc. by registering them in conjunction with data obtained from a measuring device. However, such processing places a burden on the physicians and medical personnel. For this reason, measuring devices have been proposed that can acquire both measurements and patient information and then associate them to create a unitary data item (for example, see Patent Documents 1 and 2).
Specifically, Patent Documents 1 and 2 have disclosed measuring devices equipped with barcode readers. The measuring devices disclosed in Patent Documents 1 and 2 are glucometers provided with a slot for inserting a sensor to which a blood sample drop is applied. The glucometers measure blood glucose levels when a sensor is inserted in the slot. In addition, the measuring devices disclosed in Patent Document 1 and 2 are equipped with barcode readers and are capable of acquiring data represented by barcodes. Patient IDs, operator (physician or medical personnel) IDs, and other data related to measurement data is suggested as the data represented by barcodes.
Furthermore, the measuring devices disclosed in Patent Documents 1 and 2 handle blood glucose levels acquired from sensors and patient IDs, etc. read by the barcode readers as unitary data items and can transmit them to an external computer operating as a database. In particular, Patent Document 1 has disclosed a docking station for a measuring device. The docking station has a function, in accordance with which, upon connecting a measuring device, the station automatically acquires data and transmits the acquired data to an external computer. In this case, the only thing a physician or other medical personnel needs to do is connect a measuring device that has completed measurements to the docking station.
In addition, Patent Document 1, in particular, has disclosed an example, in which data represented by barcodes indicates sensor expiration dates. In this example, a measuring device uses an expiration date it reads to determine whether a sensor is functional and alerts the operator of the measuring device if the sensor is not functional. As a result, faulty measurements due to passage of sensor expiration dates can be minimized.